If you stand still for a moment and shut the sounds of the din of modern life from your mind, and if you listen very carefully, you can almost hear the crack of the teamster’s whip as the huge teams of Belgian, Percheron or Clydesdale draft horses strain against the thick leather of their harnesses.
And if you wait just another moment you can hear the distinctive creaking of wood-against-wood as yet another freight wagon inches toward the hills ahead, pulled along by the mighty team whose pungent sweat swirls in the air mixing easily with the summer dust and the curses and shouts of hard men living out their lives in hard times.
Allowing your senses to experiment a few more minutes, you can easily find yourself back in the 1860s heading north into the goldfields of the Cariboo with an unseemly collection of prospectors, card sharps and starry-eyed settlers all riding a rainbow illuminating their dreams for the soft yellow metal or gold of a different kind.
As you are jolted back to reality, escaping the daydream is no simple chore. Faced with one of the finest collections 
in the country of wagons, cutters, horse-drawn farm machinery and the flotsam and jetsam of an era romanticized in countless films, stories, songs and the fanciful longings of those who yearn to escape the stress of modern life, it is easy to remain spellbound.
I won’t delve a great deal into the history, since Ray and Vi Young will be only too happy to do that for you. 83 Mile House was one of a string of roadhouses that sprung up along the Cariboo Waggon Road, built to open the Cariboo to gold miners and settlers. Enterprising business people of the day opened the roadhouses which were necessary stopovers for the teamsters and their wagon loads of goods, stagecoach passengers and travelers wandering in on foot leading their donkeys, mules and camels.
I wandered recently into the historic 83 Mile House Farm Equipment Museum and immersed myself for a few hours in this long-lost world so carefully and lovingly preserved by Ray and Vi Young, pioneer ranchers in their own right. Their ranching experience goes back to the Canim Lake area in 1956.
Ray was out working on one of his many beloved pieces of farm equipment when I showed up. I got out of my truck and ambled over to him but he was already half-way to greet me with his hand extended and a friendly smile on his weathered face. I presented him my card and told him I wanted to do a bit of a spread on my website about his museum. He was only too happy to oblige.
But, backing up a bit, I was aware of the museum’s existence having made numerous trips up and down Highway 97 and the museum’s location at the foot of Begbie Summit on the west side of the highway.
While my curiosity was always piqued by the eclectic collection of buildings and machinery, but I never took the time to stop. I suspect the Begbie Summit might be a deterrence to travelers who want to get to 100 Mile House or other destinations.
It wasn’t until I actually moved to the Cariboo that the stories of the old Gold Rush Trail captured my imagination and I had to find out more about it. So, back to that encounter with Ray.
As I drove into the yard I was confronted with equipment, the like of which I had not seen in years. Since I am no spring chicken myself, I was familiar with many of the mowers, hay balers, plows, combines and the aging tractors that dotted the landscape. A large chunk of Ray’s collection, however, predates the motorized age, so much of it is horse drawn.
With a proud glint in his eye, Ray got right to the task at hand, and we trundled along among the flotsam and jetsam of this tribute to a bygone era that is quickly fading from memory as we blindly plunge into the age of the video game, cell phone and gadgetry, in which, I have little interest.
Our first stop was at a workshop. Actually it is more of a workshed, where Ray tinkers with his precious acquisitions and he explained how he was refurbishing a wagon. We talked about getting parts for these 19th Century wonders and I was thinking how Ray was single-handedly preserving skills and knowledge that must be rare indeed. On a subsequent visit I will please to see him with two of his grandchildren watching and perhaps even learning a thing or two.
With keys in hand we ambled over to a locked building with Ray enthusiastically telling me he wanted to show me something special, as if we didn’t already have enough about which to get excited. We entered to be greeted by a collection of brass buggy lanterns the likes of which I had never seen.
Housed in the same building are numerous harness bells and assorted items of everyday use in the homes of the era. One particular item is a red, stained glass brass lamp used in a Victoria house of ill repute to let customers know if it was open for business or not. I think I saw Vi blush a bit when telling me about it.
In another cabin are items of furniture, dishes and other period items purchased and used by our great-parents. Then there’s the log bunkhouse. While it holds few artifacts, its ambience fires the imagination to rekindle scenes of men in long underwear talking and complaining, chewing tobacco and playing cards before sleep overtakes them. Ray sums it up by saying "if only these walls could talk." In a sense they do.
A tour of the great log barns reveals a collection of wagons and carriages that would be the envy of any aficionado of the period. In fact you can see the barns in an archival photo in the attached photo album. Some of the buggies and carriages were manufactured by Studebaker and the McLaughlin Carriage Co. before they became major manufacturers of automobiles. I would not be surprised if Fisher is represented there as well. Fisher, of course, manufactures most of the General Motors car bodies today.
Other names you can spot at the 83 Mile House stopover includes Phateon from England, Deere and Company out of Moline, Ill, the forerunner to John Deere. The Young’s have on display farm items such as an 1875 Gilpin Moore Sulky Plow and hay presses out of Missouri. I would not even attempt to list in detail all there is to see and talk about.
While I have talked a great deal about Ray I have yet to mention Vi. Earlier I said Ray had single-handedly amassed this collection. Well, that is not true. I found Vi to be every bit as much a collector as Ray. In fact she tells me they are "a couple of packrats." Some packrats!
Over a cup of green tea in their unpretentious home on the site, we talked about the museum and the pleasure they derived from greeting visitors and casually taking them around. Vi proudly shows me her prized Chilcotin Indian basket and points to other first Nations treasures at the museum.
Vi is a gentle lady with a quick smile and equally quick wit. But both she and Ray are much more than packrats. I queried them about their goals for the museum. It seemed to me 83 Mile House should be a major destination for the Cariboo. I could envisage carriage and wagon rides up and down the remnants of the old Waggon Road which cuts through the property.
I speculated about demonstrations involving the still usable farm equipment given by people in period costumes. Perhaps even draft horse competitions could be presented. But, alas, it will not happen. Ray explains the cost of insurance will keep the attraction much like it is.
Perhaps a major stumbling-block to realizing the full potential of this historic place is the fact it is privately owned. It seems to me governments and other groups harbor a deep resentment against and suspicion of private enterprise involvement in such history-based enterprises.
Yet, Ray and Vi Young intend to carry on with buying, collecting and sometime trading, but never
 selling, their acquisitions. They are obviously not into all this for the money, since the entry fee is by donation. I think the Young’s should be recognized for their impressive contribution to the preservation of Cariboo history.
As I was preparing to leave, the thought crossed my mind that it would be sad to lose this treasure trove of history. But just then Ray started telling me about some obscure piece of equipment he had recently heard about and was going to investigate it. I think he said something about Saskatchewan.
As I returned to the 21st Century, Ray’s final comment had already laid my fears to rest.
|
